Canada in strong return to playoffs
Teams north of border make postseason after being denied last year
The hockey world has resumed revolving on its normal axis north of the border. A year after being shut out, Canada is making a return to the NHL playoffs in a big way.
O Canada, is the buzz ever back across the Great White North: From Calgary’s Red Mile bar district to Montreal’s rue Sainte-Catherine to Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the landscape for the playoffs includes the big-stage debuts of such young stars as Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Toronto’s Auston Matthews.
“When players get traded here and they talk about how great the Bell Centre is, we always say, ‘Wait ‘til’ the playoffs,” American-born Montreal Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said. “There’s nothing like it. It’s like the Super Bowl every day.”
Multiply that by five because that’s how many of the hockey-mad nation’s seven franchises are in the playoffs, which open Wednesday .
There’s an Original Six showdown between Montreal and the New York Rangers.
Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara will face his former team in Ottawa .
The youth-laden Maple Leafs make just their second playoff appearance in 13 years by opening against Alex Ovechkin and the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington Capitals.
In ending a 10-year playoff drought, the Oilers christen their new downtown arena against the defending Western Conference champion Sharks.
And let’s not forget Johnny Gaudreau and the Flames making just their second playoff appearance in eight years by opening against Anaheim.
Red Wings: General manager Ken Holland says Jeff Blashill will remain Detroit’s coach after the team missed the playoffs for the first time in 26 seasons.
Late Red Wings enforcer n Bob Probert has been given a little more time in the penalty box at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.
Probert’s widow, Dani, sprinkled some of the forward’s ashes in the box on Sunday, when the Red Wings played their final game in the stadium.
Probert’s daughter, Brogan, tweeted Sunday that she “can’t think of a better place” for her father’s ashes.
Probert logged hours in the box as one of the NHL’s most penalized players. During the 1987-88 season, he led the league with 398 minutes in penalties.
Probert retired in 2002 and died of a heart attack in 2010 at the age of 45.
Kings: When Rob Blake stood up in a team meeting and addressed the Kings as their new general manager, he got the same feelings he used to get when he was the Kings’ captain during his playing career.
The Hall of Fame defenseman has new responsibilities and sky-high standards to meet in his role charting the Kings’ return to championship contention.
The Kings introduced Blake and team president Luc Robitaille, one day after coach Darryl Sutter and general manager Dean Lombardi were fired despite winning Stanley Cup titles in 2012 and 2014.
Blue Jackets-Penguins: Forget about past history and playoff experience. The Pittsburgh Penguins insist those things won’t matter when the puck drops on Wednesday night in Game 1 of their firstround series against Columbus Blue Jackets.
So what if the Penguins have twice as many Stanley Cups (four) as the Blue Jackets have postseason wins (two)? Pittsburgh believes it will also have zero impact on the present when the defending champions take on their upstart Metropolitan Division rivals in a showdown between the teams that finished the regular season with the second- and fourth-best records in the league.
Blues-Wild: This was not quite the plan the St. Louis Blues had for Mike Yeo. He was supposed to take over as head coach next season, after Ken Hitchcock’s retirement, not in the middle of this one. The plan certainly didn’t include a firstround matchup for Yeo and the Blues against the Minnesota Wild, who fired him just last year.
Well, here they are, Yeo and his new team pitted against his previous charges in one of the most intriguing pairings of the NHL postseason that opens on Wednesday night.
“My goal is not to beat the Minnesota Wild for me,” Yeo said. “My goal is for us as a group to keep getting better and keep seeing what we’re capable of.”